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‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

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Title: Yellow Butterfly

Author: Oleksandr Shatokhin

Translator: Wordless Picture Book

Illustrator:

Publisher: Red Comet Press (USA)

Date Published: 2023

Format: Hardback

Genre:

Book Category: Picture Book

Age Range: 9-11

Original Title: First published in Ukraine by Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva (The Old Lion Publishing House), Lviv, 2022

Country of Origin: Ukraine

Yellow Butterfly

by Oleksandr Shatokhin
Age Range: 9-11

What an incredibly evocative wordless picture book this is. Ukrainian author and illustrator Oleksandr Shatokhin’s Yellow Butterfly will indelibly leave its mark on the reader as there is an awful lot to interpret here. Its powerful message is conveyed through emotive and provocative artwork – often consisting of dramatic stark black-and-white imagery that moves into bright bursts of blue and yellow colour.

The book’s opening scene is an almost pitch-black double-page spread followed by a nightmarish image of a close-up of a single barbed-wire knot which when you turn the page becomes clearer as it expands into a menacing metal fence. Then we encounter a solitary white silhouette of a child standing behind the barbed wire with two black knots placed strategically hiding her eyes. Suddenly the fence is transformed into a scary giant spider frightening the girl and forcing her to run, causing her to trip and fall. Next, we see two simple pencil-lined drawings – one of the girl covering her face with her hands and the other as she gradually peers through her fingers to see a glorious bright yellow butterfly.

Shatokhin’s skilfully designed pages use perspective, patterns and grainy black/grey with their contrasts of light and dark together with the sharpness of the blue and yellow, all used to great effect. The way in which Shatokhin juxtaposes the terrible scenes of devastation that war brings with the yellow butterfly, which becomes a symbol of hope, is incredibly mesmerising.

Yellow Butterfly is a timeless picture book that offers a child’s-eye view of the war in Ukraine. Although it shocks with its powerful symbolism, the final message is ultimately one of hope with final scenes showing a stunning swarm of yellow butterflies filling the bright blue sky – colours that also represent the Ukrainian flag – and the appearance of a magnificent bird with its wings spread wide.

This stunningly beautiful book lingers long after you put it down and inspires hope of a return to peace and freedom for Ukraine.

As Shatokhin says in the blurb on the back of the book – “My book is about faith, hope, and the belief that after the war, after our victory, life will go on, everything will be restored, and we will live in a new peaceful Ukraine. The memories of those who died in this war will help us heal. And yellow butterflies will flutter freely in free Ukraine.”

At the back of the book, there are useful notes on ‘Sharing a Wordless Picture Book’ and ‘Guiding Conversation’ about discussing war with children. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Yellow Butterflywill be donated to The Universal Reading Foundation which sends books to Ukraine.

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